Lamentations 4:17-22

The Voice

¹⁷ Quietly we waited for help until our eyes failed.
    We hoped and watched for a nation to rescue us.
But we waited in vain: no rescue came.

¹⁸ Routinely our steps were tracked
    so that we could not even walk our own streets.
This was it, our days at an end;
    we were done for.

¹⁹ Swifter than eagles in the sky,
    they pursued us through the mountains;
And in all the wild places,
    they hunted us and lay in wait.

²⁰ Trapped, our king, the Eternal’s anointed, the breath of our life,
    was taken to their pits;
Of him we said, “He casts a long shadow
    that will protect us from the nations.”

²¹ Utter your words of joy: Edom, inhabitants of the land of Uz,
    go ahead—be happy.
In time the cup of suffering will be yours too,
    and you’ll drink so deeply, so perilously as to be intoxicated and stripped naked.

²² Viciously, daughter Zion, your iniquity has been punished.
    That is done; your exile is over.
Daughter Edom, on the other hand, is a different story:
    you’ll be called to account for your sins and uncovered accordingly.